Armenia has improved its position by 15 spots in the Global Peace Index 2020, taking 99th place out of 163.

According to new data, Armenia "rose 15 places in the rankings and is now ranked among the 100 most peaceful countries, owing to a large improvement in relations with neighbouring countries, as well as a substantial fall in its incarceration rate."

"The largest improvement occurred on the Ongoing Conflict domain, with improvements in relations with neighbouring countries and a fall in deaths from internal conflict. The primary driver of these changes was an improved relationship with neighbouring Azerbaijan, helped in part by Armenia’s ‘velvet revolution’, and a stabilisation of the Nagarno-Karabakh conflict."

According to the authors, the level of imprisonment in Armenia has also improved significantly: over the past three years, it has decreased by 35 percent to 76 prisoners per 100,000 people.

“This fall means that Armenia now has the lowest incarceration rate in the Russia and Eurasia region.,” the report noted.

However, "despite these improvements, Armenia did record deteriorations in some indicators. Although political instability improved, it came at the expense of increasing government interference, resulting in a deterioration in Armenia’s political terror scale score. There was also a deterioration in the Militarisation domain. In contrast to the improvement in Azerbaijan, weapons imports rose significantly, as did military expenditure as a percentage of GDP."

Iceland ranked first in the listing, leaving behind New Zealand and Portugal, while the least peaceful countries are Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.